Free CBM Calculator for Shipping

CBM = length × width × height × quantity, with all dimensions in metres. From centimetres, multiply the three dimensions and the quantity then divide by 1,000,000. From millimetres, divide by 1,000,000,000. From inches, multiply the cubic inches by 0.000016387064. Calculate each carton size separately and add the group totals.

Multiply length, width and height in centimetres to get cubic centimetres, multiply by the number of cartons, then divide by 1,000,000. A carton of 60 × 40 × 40 cm is 96,000 cm³, or 0.096 CBM; fifty of them are 4.8 CBM. The division by a million is the step people drop when working quickly.

It depends entirely on the pricing basis, not on physics. Ocean LCL treats 1 CBM as 1,000 kg under the weight-or-measure convention. General air cargo treats it as 167 kg at the 6,000 divisor. Express couriers treat it as 200 kg at the 5,000 divisor. European road groupage treats it as 333 kg. There is no universal conversion — always state which basis you mean.

External, always. The carrier, consolidator or handling agent measures the outside of the package as presented, including any bulge from tight packing, banding and protruding features. Internal dimensions describe what fits inside the box and are irrelevant to freight measurement.

Measure the loaded pallet as a single unit: footprint length × footprint width × total height including the pallet itself. A 1.20 × 0.80 m EUR pallet loaded to 1.55 m overall is 1.488 CBM. Do not sum the cartons and ignore the pallet — you will understate the shipment by 10–20% and the consolidator's measurement will not match yours.

No. Averaging unlike dimensions changes the calculated volume, usually upward, and produces a figure that cannot be reconciled against the packing list. Twenty cartons at 60 × 40 × 50 and ten at 80 × 60 × 40 total 4.320 CBM; averaging the dimensions gives 4.725 CBM. Calculate each group and add.

No — it tells you whether it might. Nominal container capacity assumes a perfect rectangular fill that no real load achieves. Plan on 80–85% of nominal for floor-loaded cartons and less for palletised cargo. Use a carton fit calculation for orientation and stacking, and confirm the payload limit separately, because dense cargo runs out of weight before it runs out of space.

CBM is a measurement of space. Volumetric weight is a billing figure derived from that space by dividing by a contractual divisor, so that light bulky cargo pays for the room it occupies. One CBM is always one CBM; its volumetric weight is 167 kg, 200 kg or 333 kg depending on whose tariff you are under.

Carry full precision through the calculation and round once at the end, conventionally to three decimal places. Rounding each row first pushes the error consistently in one direction across a long packing list. Where the figure will appear on a Bill of Lading or a customs document, match the precision the carrier or authority expects rather than adding decimals of your own.

Because they measure the cargo as it arrives, not as it was specified. Pallets add height, shrink wrap adds width, overhang is measured to the outermost point, and tightly packed cartons bulge beyond their printed dimensions. A 10–20% difference on palletised cargo is normal. A larger gap is worth querying, and worth asking for the measurement record.

For freight measurement, yes. The pallet is part of the article presented for carriage, and the carrier measures the loaded unit including it. For a packing list describing what is inside the shipment, you may show the carton volume separately — but the freight figure is the loaded pallet.

Yes. Extracting a packing list returns package rows with dimensions, net and gross weights and any printed CBM as structured fields, and the printed totals are recomputed and checked against the line detail. Where the document's own total disagrees with the sum of its lines, that is surfaced as a discrepancy rather than passed through.